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Wednesday, August 16, 2017

Barangays and Buildings Traversed by the Valley Fault System

The Valley Fault System, which is composed of the West and East Valley Fault traverses to several provinces all the way from Bulacan in the north to Laguna in the south with a total length of 146.71 kilometers. This also includes whole length of Metro Manila from Quezon City all the way down to Muntinlupa City. About 80 barangays are affected and more than six thousand structures sitting on top of the fault line with over 2 million people on the danger zone.

In 2014, we have provided a list of some notable structures, villages, and schools that may lie exactly on the fault to about 500-meter distance from it.

It has been predicted that this fault system can possibly trigger a 7.2 magnitude earthquake for every 400 years (+/- 100 years). Last fault activity was recorded in the year 1658.

Buildings on top of the Valley Fault System

The Valley Fault System traverses to a length of 146.71 kilometers and is composed of two major fault lines. The East Valley Fault extends to about 17.24 kilometers, traversing from Rodriguez (Montalban) on the north to San Mateo on the south; both in the province of Rizal. The West Valley Fault extends to 129.47 kilometers from Doña Remedios Trinidad, Bulacan to Calamba, Laguna.

As of the time of this writing and current data available, there are about 6,331 structures that are directly above the Valley Fault System within a 10-meter proximity which would be in potential danger of destruction once the slip-fault moves. This sums up to an area of 2,964.10 square kilometers in danger of collapse. However, the number of affected structures is not definitive as some of the structures have not yet been mapped and the destructive effects of earthquakes are not limited to where the fault line lies.

Of the 6,331 structures, city of Muntinlupa has the most number of structures constructed on top of the fault line consisting of 1,771 buildings. Majority of which are residential buildings with 1,500 houses and 6 condominiums (high-rise residential buildings).

Table of Structures on top of the Valley Fault System
(click to enlarge)

Schools on top of the West Valley Fault Line

There are about 19 schools, colleges and universities that are on the West Valley Fault Line to which 29 of their buildings are directly constructed on top of the fault line. These schools must immediately evacuate the premises in case of an earthquake due to the possibility of collapse when the dextral slip-stype fault collides during movement.

Population at-risk

Population is also at risk as the total number of people residing on barangays where the Valley Fault system traverses is about 2,319,432, with Barangay Batasan Hills of Quezon City as the most populated at 161,409.

Population per Barangay where the Valley Fault System Traverses

(click to enlarge)

Muntinlupa has most number of population exposed to the Valley Fault System, with 8 barangays traversed by the fault, summing up to 483,080 people in total. Massive evacuation might be needed when the effects of the earthquake are at its maximum.

Population per City/Municipality where the Valley Fault System Traverses

(click to enlarge)

This data and article was written to provide local government units and disaster risk reduction managers to create definitive plans based on this data to minimize the effects of the disaster and for the city and municipal engineers to ensure structures are constructed by meeting the standards for disaster resilient homes and provide proper zoning in their jurisdictions.

The public are also made aware of the dangers so that they are prepared when disaster strikes through the "duck, cover, and hold" system, as well as ensuring each family member is equipped with go-bags (survival bags), for immediate evacuation.

Technical Report

Abstract

The Philippines is one of the densely populated country in the world with over 337 persons per square kilometer. Most of the population is situated in Metro Manila with roughly 21,000 per square kilometer density in an area of over 600 square kilometers.. The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology has published an updated trace of the Valley Fault System traversing the densely populated are of the Philippines...

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